The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III (Part I)

By Shaun Hately

A full and detailed report, serialised in two parts

In Brief

On August 15th 1979, James Dallas Egbert III (known as
Dallas Egbert) disappeared from Michigan State University
in East Lansing, Michigan. Dallas was a 16 year old child
prodigy. He was an expert on computers (he had been called
in to repair computers for the United States Air Force when
he was 12), a Science Fiction and Fantasy fan, and a player
of the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game.
On August 22nd
a Texas Private Investigator, Mr William C Dear was called
in by Dallas' family in an effort to find the boy. Dallas'
uncle, Dr Melvin Gross, knew Mr Dear socially through his
sister, who worked for Mr Dear as a secretary. Mr Dear is
a celebrated and highly successful Private Investigator,
and after speaking to Dallas' parents agreed to take
the case. During his investigation he suggested that
Dallas may have been involved in some sort of Dungeons &
Dragons game that had gone horribly wrong. This theory
was widely reported in the press. In 1982 a movie called
Mazes & Monsters' which bore a superficial resemblance
to the case debuted in Cinemas. Many people with vague
memories of the Dallas Egbert case assumed the movie was
a true story rather than a work of fiction. The media's
reports, coupled with this misconception, and the fact
that William Dear was prevented from clarifying the case,
helped to create the common misconception that Role
Playing Games (RPGs) in general, and Dungeons & Dragons
(D&D) in particular were in some way dangerous. In 1984,
William Dear wrote a book entitled The Dungeon Master:
The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III in which he
presented the facts of the case as he saw them. This book,
which forms the basis of my article, was largely ignored
by the media and critics of the game.

Disclaimer

At times in this article I will refer to theories
involving possible homosexual child abuse of Dallas. I wish
to make clear that I am in no way suggesting that gay men
are any more likely to molest children than heterosexual
men, nor that any form of sexuality is more or less valid
than any other. References to child molestation amongst
the gay community refers only to the actual events in
question. This information is presented for the sake of
completeness and I apologise to anyone who is offended
by it.

Why Have I Written This Article?

The reason is simple. Very few people are aware of the
facts behind this case. That is true of both the games
critics and its supporters. There are a lot of rumours
circulating, most of which can be described only as urban
myths. The Dallas Egbert case is only one of the cases
which form the basis for the games detractors, but it is
the one I am most familiar with. It is also one of the
most famous.

My qualifications to write this article are also
simple. The first is just that I am doing it. Anyone
could do likewise. But there are some reasons why I am
writing it. I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons,
its derivatives, and other roleplaying games, for over a
decade and a half now. I also understand, to an extent,
some of the problems that Dallas faced. There are some
similarities between his life and my own. The primary one
is that I too was a profoundly gifted child and adolescent
who suffered many of the same pressures that Dallas was
forced to endure, and so I believe I have some knowledge
and insight into Dallas that others may not share.

The Facts In This Case

Dallas Egbert, aged 16 years, disappeared from his dorm
(Case Hall) at Michigan State University on the 15th August
1979, after having had lunch with Karen Coleman, one of his
few friends. Despite his age, his parents were not notified
of his disappearance until the 20th of August. On the 22nd
August Mr William Dear was called in by Dallas' uncle, Dr
Melvin Gross, and his parents, James and Anna Egbert. Mr
Dear immediately dispatched three of his associates to
East Lansing, arriving there himself a week later.

Dallas was a D&D player. That is not
in dispute. It is also not in dispute that students at
Michigan State University (MSU) played games including a
'live action form' of D&D in steam tunnels
under the University buildings. It should be pointed
out that D&D is not meant to be played
in this way, and in fact, the students were not playing
D&D. That is what they called what they did,
and there may well have been elements of D&D
in this live action game. But D&D is
designed to be played sitting down around a table. It is
not designed to be acted out.

Versions of RPGs called LARP or LRP (Live Action
Role Playing or Live Role Playing) do exist. They are
not D&D however. D&D is one
example of a roleplaying game, LARPs are another. To refer
to LARPs as Dungeons & Dragons is akin to
referring to American Football as Soccer or as Rugby.
They are similar. They share the same derivations and
similar principles. But they are separate entities.

The facts of Dallas' roleplaying were concentrated
on by the media, partly due to the investigative efforts
of William Dear. There are other facts to be considered,
however, which got nowhere near as much coverage.

Dallas was either gay or bisexual. He was also a drug
user who used his knowledge of chemistry to manufacture
drugs. These facts are of far more relevance in discussing
Dallas than the fact he played D&D.

Dallas also suffered from severe depression caused or
exacerbated by, in the opinion of an MSU psychologist,
"parental pressure, criticism, academic pressure, and the
failure of all persons to realise that, although Dallas
Egbert was a genius, he was socially retardant, and in some
respects could be considered mentally retarded." According
to Dr Louise Sause, an MSU Professor who specialised in
child psychology, the case was an example of "the very
costly price asked of some children . . . Their own image
becomes one so perfect that they dare not fail to live
up to it . . . At the same time, fear of success can
become just as great as, or greater than, the fear of
failure. It's the constant demand to be star."

As an example of this, three days before he disappeared
Dallas spoke to his mother, and told her how happy he was
to have earned a 3.5 for a computer science course. She
told him that he should have got a 4.0 (the highest grade
possible).

The immediate investigation into Dallas' disappearance
uncovered several things in his room. These included a
note, suggesting suicide, a handwriting analysis of which
said that it had not been written by Dallas. There was
also a collection of poems, part of one (called 'Final
Destination') I will quote below as it may give some
insight into the character and mindset of Dallas at the
time of his disappearance.

Probably a town up
ahead, maybe a farm.
Probably could make it,
wouldn't be too hard.
If I can find a reason,
then I'll leave the car.
At the moment, I just don't know
where the reasons are.
Whenever I decide there's
a place I'd like to be,
soon as I can find there's
a goal to be achieved,
come the time I'm shown that
there's something left for me,
then I'll go, but until then,
I think I'd rather sleep."

When William Dear was called in, he learned all of
this. He also found a notice board in Dallas room which
had a strange arrangement of drawing pins placed into
it. Mr Dear was convinced that these pins were some sort of
message, perhaps a clue to where Dallas was, or what his
intentions had been. Over the course of his investigation
he considered several possibilities.

The first which gained the most coverage was that
the pins were in the shape of a map, possibly of the
tunnels under MSU. This was considered possible based
on the most prominent part of the design which was
L-shaped and bore a distinct resemblance to the old
power plant at the school as seen from overhead.

The shaped design was also considered to
possibly represent a gun, and perhaps an indication
of suicide. There were also thirty eight pins, which
was considered to possibly represent the calibre of
a gun.

When it emerged that Dallas used to 'trestle'
(meaning that he would play chicken with trains on an
old trestle bridge near the University) the possibility
was considered that the L-shape represented a train and
the scattered arrangement of the other pins represented
the path of a body hit by a train.

An expert on Braille postulated that the pins could
represent a Braille message. He worked out a possible
translation as being "And for it you braved."

Of these four theories, the first three turned out
to have some validity. The design was a map. Dallas
had attempted to mark all the rooms in the steam tunnels
underneath the University, as close to scale as he could
manage. The only one he had not marked was the room
he intended to hide in. The dichotomy of the L-shape
representing a train and a gun had also occurred to
him. The message in Braille, however, was a complete
coincidence - or rather the expert had tried to find a
message that wasn't there and had managed to come up with
something, in a similar way to seeing pictures in clouds
if you look for them.

William Dear is a somewhat unorthodox detective. He is,
however, a very successful one. At the time of writing his
book, he says that he had never failed to locate a missing
person. He investigates all possibilities. After reviewing
the evidence he considered a number of possibilities.

That Dallas had committed suicide.

That Dallas had gone into the steam tunnels and been injured or killed.

That Dallas was playing a game. He had disappeared for the sole purpose
of making people look for him.

That Dallas had overdosed on drugs.

That Dallas was being held by a gay man or a group of gay men.

That Dallas was being held by people who were using his knowledge of how
to make drugs.

That Dallas had been kidnapped by some sort of intelligence group to
make use of his special talents and intelligence.

That Dallas had been murdered.

That Dallas had come to identify so much with his D&D character that he
believed he was his character.

That Dallas had been sent on some sort of a mission by a
D&D Dungeon Master in order to prove that he was
worthy to play in an advanced game.

That Dallas had been killed or injured while engaging in some sort of
dangerous activity - perhaps trestling.

Dear considered some of these theories less likely than
others. He seems to have favoured the theories of suicide,
being held hostage, murdered, injured in the tunnels, or
on some sort of elaborate game. First, I will deal with
the suggestions that have something to do with D&D. These
are theories 3, 9 and 10.

Theory 3 indicates that Dallas was playing some sort of game with the
police and detectives looking for him. Dear did consider this possible at
first. He even thought that it might be an effort to run the ultimate
dungeon. He came to discard this theory as the case dragged on as it went
on too long to be a game.

Theory 9 is the most dangerous one. It presents a
common misconception held by many people, and one chiefly
used by the anti-D&D movements. The simple fact is that
becoming this attached to a alter-ego or a persona is a
sign of mental disturbance. If a person is at the stage
that they cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality,
they have a medical problem. Such a problem could not have
anything to do with D&D in the first instance.

If a person is a roleplayer, it is possible that they
could then become this attached to a character. Likewise,
if a person is a fan of a television show, they can become
attached to a character in the show, and take on that
character as the basis for their own personality. In such
cases, the idea of blaming television is ludicrous, and
likewise in RPGs. The cause is internal to the person, and
a game could not cause this type of medical condition.

I should also point out that while I accept the
possibility of a person becoming this attached to a
character, my research has failed to find any documented
case where this has occurred. Rona Jaffe's novel Mazes &
Monsters was based on a fictional case, and this has led
many people to believe that that book (and the subsequent
movie) was a true depiction of the Dallas Egbert case.
This perpetuates this theory, despite the fact that no
evidence supports it.

As to Theory 10, while it is possible for a sadistic
and cruel person to send a 16 year old boy on such
a dangerous real-life mission, in order to prove their
worth, such actions have more basis in gang cultures than
in D&D. Any such action has nothing to do with D&D at
all, and again there is no evidence of this ever having
occurred anywhere.

Besides theory 3, the theories that Mr Dear felt were
most likely were, as I have said; suicide, murder, being
held hostage, or being injured in the tunnels.

He believed suicide was a distinct possibility because
of the suicide note (which he felt to be genuine despite
the handwriting analysis - he was correct), the depression
that was evident from Dallas' poetry and from conversations
with those who knew him. However he based his investigation
on the assumption that Dallas was alive, as that gave him
the best chance to find the boy safely.

He considered murder, possibly by drug types, or child
molesters. Again, however, he concentrated primarily on
the theories that allowed a hope that Dallas would be
recovered alive.

Mr Dear did consider the theories that Dallas was
being held hostage. He considered it possible that Dallas
was being held by what is called a 'chicken hawk': a gay
man who uses children for his own sexual purposes. Dear
attempted to investigate this and when a gay Private
Investigator from New York, Don Gillitzer offered his
services to assist in the investigation, Dear accepted
as Mr Gillitzer had a better chance in that area. Mr
Gillitzer's job was to ask questions in the gay community,
and if there was a chance anyone was holding Dallas to
put pressure on them to release him. The theory that he
was being held by drug dealers, for his skills was also
investigated.

As to Dallas lying injured in the steam tunnels,
Michigan State University refused to accept this
possibility. They claimed it was impossible for the tunnels
to be entered despite evidence to the contrary. Eventually
Mr Dear managed to get permission to search the tunnels. He
found them to be extremely dangerous and concluded that if
Dallas had gone down there, he was not still down there. He
found evidence that Dallas had been down there - a blanket,
a carton of sour milk, and some cheese and crackers in a
small room.

Mr Dear was not adverse to using the media to help
him, and the Dallas Egbert case was world news. He was
faced with a dilemma however. He wanted to keep the drug
and sex theories out of the papers for several reasons.
The first one was that he didn't want any people holding
Dallas to panic and kill him, because they thought the
law was closing in. He also wanted to protect Dallas, and
Dr and Mrs Egbert as much as possible. For these reasons,
he pushed a version of the Dungeons & Dragons theory.

In fairness to Mr Dear, his sole interest was the safety
of a child. Everything else was secondary, and rightly
so. But his decision had many unfortunate side effects.
The media picked up on this story and sensationalised it,
and this led to much damage to the image of the roleplaying
industry. More on this, and the facts on what actually
happened to Dallas will be included in the second half of
this report.